Cigna Corp at JPMorgan Healthcare Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Gary Paul Taylor - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : And I definitely want to ask about some of those new partnerships in a moment here. Maybe first, yesterday, you also provided your 2020 enrollment guidance to The Street. Can you kind of frame that out for us? So in Medicare Advantage, really strong double-digit growth, really significant turnaround there. We sort of do some implied math, looks like Commercial business, maybe up 1%, 1.5%, but we had talked about last night's continued strength of sort of Middle and Select and less so in National. So sort of frame up for us how you look at that 2020 enrollment guidance and what was driving that.

Question: Gary Paul Taylor - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : So a year ago, the transaction either just closed or was getting ready to...

Question: Gary Paul Taylor - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Right. So a year ago, we were sitting here and just a few weeks out from closing a $70 some-odd billion acquisition of Express Scripts. And you really firmly believed in combining these 2 companies, creating this integrated offering. So a year into it, can you give us some maybe highlights and lowlights? What's maybe been more compelling than you thought? Anything that has been surprising or disappointing? But how are you feeling about it a year into it?

Question: Gary Paul Taylor - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : As we came out of 2019, heading into 2020 election year, there's been a lot of proposals by various candidates in terms of health care reform. And I thought you made a very good point on CNBC this morning. You were asked a question about the PBM. And you basically said it's not particularly fruitful to pick on one part of the system versus another. So when we think about the role that payers and integrated payer and provider can play in sort of shaping the narrative in Washington, where are you oriented and where are you prioritizing sort of that effort to make the government or those entities understand that there's significant value that a company like Cigna can bring?

Question: Gary Paul Taylor - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Can we talk a little bit about -- so yesterday, you announced a new collaboration or venture with Oscar Health. Can you maybe just describe a little more what exactly that is? And then I appreciated the explanation yesterday of sort of what does Oscar get out of that from Cigna and what does -- how does Cigna benefit from that relationship with Oscar. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. JANUARY 14, 2020 / 6:00PM, CI.N - Cigna Corp at JPMorgan Healthcare Conference

Question: Gary Paul Taylor - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : And then just last month, another pretty significant announcement, and you alluded to it, was the new relationship with Prime Therapeutics. So kind of walk us through that. I guess one observation I have is that the Prime, the fifth largest PBM in the country, needs help to be more competitive in terms of contracting and both for retail pharmacy and drug acquisition cost. They can be that large and still need to avail themselves of someone who is even larger. So that's kind of an interesting observation. But can you sort of walk us through the origin of that? Was that something that ultimately was competitively bid? Or was -- they were seeking all sorts of input to that and Cigna sort of won that? And is there an opportunity to move farther along with Prime where, ultimately, they're purchasing more services from Cigna?

Question: Gary Paul Taylor - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Maybe shifting gears a little bit. One of the aspects of the combined company and the merger with ESI, in our view, one of the underappreciated aspects was the free cash flow generation of the combined company. And to that end, I think you'll be back -- by year-end, be back in the 30s, at least in terms of debt-to-cap, which is typically perceived as sort of a normal, if not, maybe slightly under-levered. So already, investors are asking again, is there another large capital deployment opportunity for Cigna? So maybe just walk through what are the capital deployment priorities as we stand here today or as we move into 2021? And certainly getting asked, is there a possibility in your mind that you could still see large consolidation among the health insurers in the U.S.? Is that something that's still plausible?

Question: Gary Paul Taylor - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Maybe in the last couple of minutes here, one last question. Sort of a long-running criticism, bear case about the PBM model has just been transparency, at least from investors' perspective in terms of the economic model and fees, et cetera. So what is Cigna doing to bring improved transparency to customers whether that's commercial customers or government customers? without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. JANUARY 14, 2020 / 6:00PM, CI.N - Cigna Corp at JPMorgan Healthcare Conference

Question: Gary Paul Taylor - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Thank you very much. We'll continue with Cigna across the hallway in the breakout.